Playbooks
Default Playbooks Please Note : It is not necessary to set your playbooks to play the game! If you prefer to play the game with a more hands-off approach, or do not yet feel comfortable managing such intricate details, the game will use a default playbook that runs very realistically. Setting Your Strategies For those wishing to modify when plays are run and what sorts of plays are run, the game allows for extreme micro-management of your team. You begin setting the strategy for a specific team by mousing over the "My Playbooks" option and selecting the team whose playbooks you wish to modify. The first thing all owners will want to do when setting their strategy, is to set their default offensive and defensive playbooks. These are situation specific playbooks created by us, and cover every possible situation that may occur in a football game. For players not wanting to create their own playbooks (or for leagues that do not allow you to moedify your own playbooks), their plays will be called from the default playbooks they select. For players wanting to create their own playbooks, the default playbooks will only be used if the game encounters a situation the player has not specified in one of his own active playbooks. All default playbooks are set to "Balanced (1)" by default. If you believe you have a stronger running team than a passing team (or are playing a team with a weak running defense), you will likely want to set your default offensive playbook to "More Run (2)." If, however, you believe you have a stronger passing team than a running team (or are playing a team with a weak passing defense), you will likely want to set your default offensive playbook to "More Pass (3)." You can set your defensive playbooks similarly. After you are finished, be sure to click the Update Playbooks button to save these changes. After saving your default playbook selections, you may want to edit your "2 Point Conversion" chart by clicking on the link near where you set your default playbooks. This chart determines when, after a touchdown, your team will go for a two point conversion verses an extra point kick. Extra point kicks are obviously converted at a much greated percentage than "2 Point Conversions", but there are instances (particularly near the end of a game or when the score dictates) when going for a "2 Point Conversion" is a better option. Your defaults are set to that of a team that is neither overly aggressive nor conservative. If, however, these options do not suit you, you can change them here. When you are finished, click the "Update Conversions" button to save your selections. The default playbooks you can choose from are solid, and will call realistic plays in just fine. If, however, the league you are in offers this choice and you really want to get your feet wet and modify your playbook to your teams strengths and weaknesses, we're ready to get started explaining one of the deepest interfaces for a simulated football game you could imagine. Advanced Playbooks Please Note : These options may not be available in all leagues! User Defined Playbook For starters, we will explain the rest of the playbook page, and what each section is and does. Let's start with the sections listed "Offensive Playbook" and "Defensive Playbook." Under each of these sections, you will see 12 playbooks listed. Initially, each playbook will be named "Undefined Playbook" with a number beside it from 1-12. In each of these playbooks, you can define under which situations you will want to run certain player packages and certain plays. We will explain how to create and edit your playbooks later. Once a playbook has been created, it will be included as an option in the drop-down boxes under the "Playbook Order" section of your playbooks page (you do not have to include all defined playbooks in your gameplan). Initially, the only playbooks you will see selected in this section are the default playbooks you selected in the steps above. Once you begin creating your own playbooks, you will put them in the order of priority you wish the game use them from highest to lowest. By ordering one playbook over another, the game will be sure to use the selections in the higher rated playbook before the selections in a lower rated playbook even if the same situation exists in both playbooks. This can be useful in the case of creating a unique playbook versus a specific team, or if your team sustains an injury to a key player. Creating a Playbook So you're ready to take control of your team, eh? The first thing to do is click on offensive or defensive playbook you want to create (alternatively, you could copy a public playbook by choosing the O beside a particular playbook). You can have up to twelve unique offensive and defensive playbooks per team, and each of these playbooks will allow you to cover 120 unique scenarios. Let's begin by clicking on an available playbook (for this example, we will choose an offensive playbook, though selecting a defensive playbook is identical in nature). In this example, I have already created 6 playbooks (one called "Main PB" one called "New One", and 4 called "Default"). Let's click on an empty playbook, (# 7) Undefined Playbook to get started creating a brand new playbook. On the next screen, you will be presented with several sections. Two sections that appears on both the offensive and defensive playbook screen are what we will call the "Option Section" and the "Situational Section." Option Section The option section is where you will name your playbook, name each play grouping in your playbook, and confirm your scenarios. When you create a new playbook, it uses the name "Default". You can change your playbook name to whatever you like (this is the name the will appear by the playbook when you look at the previous "My Playbooks" screen). As previously mentioned, you can enter up to 120 different scenarios in each playbook. When you create a new playbook, each scenario is simply named "Scenario 1", "Scenario 2", etc. You can select which scenario you wish to edit in the drop-down box under the "Scene :" label (the number in the box to the right of that label is the position of the scenario in your priority list). Note : When you change the scenario you are working on, all changes to the previous scenario will be lost unless you have clicked the "Confirm Scenario" button! You can rename your scenario something more descriptive (ie : "3rd < 1Y; Q3-4"). Just like when you order playbooks, scenarios listed higher to the top will be used before scenarios that are listed lower if both scenarios cover the same situation (this will make sense later). If you want to move a scenario up or down, you can do so with the ^10, ^1, v1, v10 buttons. Please note : The name of the scenario does NOT indicate order. If you move a scenario out of order without changing the name, you are likely to confuse yourself. You can always see where the scenario you are working on falls in the priority order by looking in the box to the right of the "Scene:" label! If you would like to base one scenario off of another, you choose the scenario you wish to copy to from the drop-down box under the "Scene :" label. This, of course, will select your scenario. You can then select the scenario you wish to copy from the drop down list below the "Copy From" button. Hitting the "Copy From" button will copy copy the information from this scenario into the currently selected scenario. Confirming the information is not necessary. Situational Section This is right beneath the Option Section. In this section, you will do several things, including : * Activating a Scenario * Selecting under which circumstances a group of plays may be called * Saving your entire playbook * Call TimeOuts ..and a bunch of other things. All options listed and what they mean are listed in this section. The first thing you will want to confirm is that, if you want to include a scenario in your playbook, is that your scenario is activated. All scenarios are inactive by default! To activate your scenario, simply select the Yes option beside the "Active?" label. The ability to inactivate scenarios is included to allow you to activate certain scenarios for certain games without having to delete them and re-enter them every time. The next step is one of the most delicate. In this step, you will select at what points during a game you want to perform certain plays. The game will only use this scenario if it encounters this exact situation in a game. Otherwise, the scenario will be skipped. You can drill down on many different levels, including : * Quarter * Time Left * Down * Yards To Go * Score * Yard Line * Your Time Outs Left * Opponents Time Outs left * Whether or not the clock is running